Michael Weller’s intense new drama, “Side Effects,” which opened Sunday night off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, is less excruciating than that famed play, yet also filled with marital conversations that will inevitably become painful arguments.
The production features a long-married, unhappy couple (excellent performances by Joely Richardson and Cotter Smith), each keeping secrets that imperil their marriage.
Controlling and rigid Hugh Metz, (played as stiff and dislikable by a deliberately awkward Smith) can’t seem to get on the same page as his free-spirited, bipolar but resilient wife, Lindy (a beautifully taut, vulnerable performance by Richardson.) David Auburn has expertly directed the pair in five tumultuous scenes during which each spouse struggles to make sense of their lives, and to understand why the other behaves as they do. The script is filled with emotional twists and turns, and Weller’s charged dialogue generally sounds like real married people do when they fight, with contradictory feelings erupting, and defensive and angry remarks flying.
Hugh seems more volatile than his wife, and Smith expertly switches from playful to sullen or angry in a split second, startling Lindy and keeping the audience on edge as well.
Lindy, who blames herself for many of the couple’s problems, repeatedly slings humorous remarks hoping to buy time or calm her husband. But Hugh, under the domination of a powerful patron, is focused on his burgeoning political career, and feels threatened by his wife’s impetuous behavior that could veer out of control.
Richardson is a thoughtful actress, and ably shows Lindy’s disappointed surprise as she repeatedly realizes that Hugh’s been manipulating her or their two sons, or withholding information yet again, in order to orchestrate politically positive events. When Hugh explodes with rage at Lindy in scene four, Richardson is a marvel of contrasting expressions as she struggles to comprehend the turn of events and his shocking remarks.
The title of “Side Effects” refers not only to Melinda’s resentment of the effects of the medications that her husband tries to force on her, but also to the many types of damage that Hugh’s selfish, determined attitude causes to his family.
